To print this article, all you need to do is be registered or log in to Mondaq.com.
Last September, two unique assignments of assets from the Korea University Research and Business Foundation (KURBF) to related entities of IP Edge LLC each launched a litigation campaign in late November. Scanton Technologies, LLC sued Avalanche technology ( 1:21-cv-01688) and Everspin Technologies (6:21-cv-01238) on providing Spin Transfer Torque Magnetic Random Access Memory (STT-MRAM) products, while Whirlwind Licensing LLC hit Infineon(Semiconductor cypress) (6:21-cv-01236) on the inclusion of some clock modulation functionality in the Cypress Traveo II for Body CYT4BF series of automotive microcontrollers.
KURBF, a branch of Korea University, transferred Scanton’s patent (7,742,333) on September 2 and assigned the second asset (8,319,537) to Whirlwind a week later. IP Edge recorded both transactions on November 23. Consisting of a single family, the ‘333 patent generally relates to a “magnetic memory device”. It was issued in June 2010 with an estimated priority of June 2007. Also comprising a family of patents, the ‘537 patent issued in November 2012 with an estimated priority of June 2010. While KURBF assigned US patents to the Institute Electronics and Telecommunications Research (ETRI) or Formerly Intellectual Discovery Co., Ltd., these agreements with IP Edge mark the only transfers to NPEs to appear in recent (public) USPTO records.
Elsewhere, IP Edge is actively litigating, against a myriad of other defendants, patents originating from Monterey Research, LLC, but which were developed at . . . Cypress Semiconductor. Most recently, in late October 2021, IP Edge plaintiffs Copperfield Licensing LLC sued Applied materials, Brucker, KLA, and MKS instruments and Burbank Technologies LLC struck CenTrak and
phyton, both on old Cypress patents. These campaigns brought to ten the number of IP Edge plaintiffs to challenge patents received from Monterey Research, which awarded assets to the company in February 2020 (six, via Spindletop IP LLC) and November 2020 (20, via Spearhead). IP LLC). (Monterey Research is a subsidiary of
Vector capitalit is Management of IP values (d/b/a IPValue). She owns hundreds of Cypress patent assets, litigating some of them herself; Cypress was acquired by Infineon Technologies in April 2020.)
This set of acquisitions and affirmations could be described as follows…
…which could recall at least the beginning of a “column of air moving rapidly around and around in the shape of a cylinder or funnel” – in other words, a whirlpool. (It’s unclear if “scanton” is a misspelling of the now-biggest small town in Pennsylvania; relies on Tommy Hilfiger-branded skinny jeans, which apparently “sit[] below [the]waist” and are “cut from hip to hem”; or refer to something else. IP Edge has a history of flippant naming conventions.)
Leading monetization company IP Navigation Group, LLC (d/b/a IPNav) went out of business when founder Erich Spangenberg “moved out” in 2014 to “do other things” afterwards (details here). After serving as Director and Vice President of Asia for IPNav in 2012-2013, Lillian Woung created IP Edge following this decision, with fellow Texas lawyers Gautham (Gau) Bodepudi and Sanjay Pant, first at Nevada, then Texas. The firm has been the leading filer of NPE cases over the years, having launched more than 170 litigation campaigns in total, just before and of course after moving to Texas.
IP Edge disputes typically proceed in the form of filing and settlement through limited liability companies incorporated in Texas, as is the case here, with each of these plaintiffs often disclosing a longtime resident of Texas, other than Bodepudi, Pant or Woung, as manager, managing member. , or member. (Here, that manager is Matthew Oltremari, a similarly positioned individual to several other IP Edge LLCs.) However, several other entities were directly formed by the trio of IP Edge directors: Q3 Networking LLC, which marked the most notable departure. usual practices of the firm in bringing an action against
CommScope, HP Company (HPE), and NETGEAR through a hearing of witnesses before the International Trade Commission (ITC) this year; Bishop Display Tech LLC, which in another departure hit
Samsung with a large number of elders IP Bridge, Inc. patents on two lawsuits filed concurrently in the Western District of Texas; and US Innovation Fund LLC, which does not appear to have received a patent, according to currently available USPTO records, but which curiously bears his name.
KURBF’s former wallets are just a few of many that IP Edge has started challenging this year, foremost among them a much larger set of assets – a number over 700 – that the company acquired in 2020. near Technicolor AG, a provider of services and products for the communication, media and entertainment industries. IP Edge has now launched 15 litigation campaigns from the portfolio, still asserting fewer than 25 patents among those received, compared to nearly 60 defendants to date.
RPX covered the last of those deposits earlier in December.
Other portfolios taken to court by IP Edge over the past year have included sets of patents acquired from Empire Technology Development LLC, France Brevets SAS, Golba, Huawei, and John D. Almon. For an overview of IP Edge’s far-reaching effect on the patent monetization landscape, see “IP Edge Keeps Up the Pace, Goes to Trial in Q3” (October 2021).
The case against Avalanche was assigned to District Judge Leonard P. Stark; the lawsuit against Everspin, to District Judge Alan D. Albright, who is also presiding over the case filed by Whirlwind against Cypress. 11/30, Avalanche, District of Delaware; 11/30, Cypress Semiconductor, Everspin, Western District of Texas.
The content of this article is intended to provide a general guide on the subject. Specialist advice should be sought regarding your particular situation.
POPULAR ARTICLES ON: United States Intellectual Property
